Lamar Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic

Broncos' Peyton Manning in wait to see if Colts' Andrew Luck will be playoff opponent

Connect the dots and the picture remains an unfinished football odyssey in two cities linked by one quarterback.

The NFL's postseason begins this weekend with Peyton Manning doing what he's done so often in the past, enjoying a bye week after he led his team to one of the best records in the NFL during the regular season.

Manning has done it for the first time in a Broncos uniform, as the greatest catch of the free-agency era. On Sunday his team of 14 years, the Indianapolis Colts, will open its postseason in Baltimore with Manning's replacement, Andrew Luck, and with a Boulder-raised coach who fought back from leukemia this season, Chuck Pagano.

A Colts' upset could put them in Denver in the divisional round as the exclamation point to close out a believe-it-or-not story.

Peyton Manning says he's been too busy to pay attention to what has been happening with his former team in Indianapolis. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

"The energy, the excitement is there, you can feel it in the building," Pagano told reporters in Indianapolis on Wednesday.

Asked about all of the trials, tribulations and changes the Colts have undergone during the past year, Pagano said: "Nothing shocks me any more."

The Colts released one of the franchise's Mount Rushmore players in Manning, drafted Luck, turned over almost the entire roster in the most extreme of makeovers, dealt with Pagano's illness, had an interim coach for most of the season — offensive coordinator Bruce Arians — and finished 11-5.

The Broncos won the Manning Derby in the offseason, traded Tim Tebow, tossed the read-option playbook in the garbage can, created a new playbook that suited Manning, put their defense in Jack Del Rio's hands and haven't lost a game since Oct. 7, after a 2-3 start.

Advertisement

"This season has been unlike any season I've ever dealt with just because of the transition," Manning said. "I really didn't know how we would mesh together and what the offense would end up looking like because I really didn't have any expectations. I guess if I had some, I definitely would have to say that it's exceeded the expectations and some things have come together, probably, quicker than I expected."

For Manning, this postseason could turn into a long stroll down memory lane, with thousands of cameras, notepads and inquiring minds diving into potential matchups with his former team (the Colts), longtime championship adversaries (New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady), capped by a Super Bowl in his hometown (New Orleans).

Until then, the Broncos can only wait and watch. Manning has tried to take the public stance of a detached observer of his former team's fortunes. Asked last week what he thought of the Colts' season far, Manning said: "I've just had so much on my plate here. It's been quite a challenge here handling everything going on in Denver, so that's really kind of what I've focused on all season long. But, hey, to make the playoffs in the NFL, you've got to have a great year so any team that's in, that says a lot. Especially in the AFC, because I think it's competitive as it ever has been."

Asked Wednesday if he would watch the Colts-Ravens game with anything more than a technical viewpoint, Manning said: "I've always watched the playoff games. It's certainly one of the three teams that we could play. It's an exciting time for football. There are going to be four great games. I'll watch the NFC as well. You always like watching playoff games and seeing what happens."

Only 17 of the 53 players on the Colts roster were there when Manning was in the locker room.

"I'm going to watch them for sure, because we haven't seen much of them," said Broncos tight end Jacob Tamme, who played four seasons in Indianapolis before signing in Denver. "And they've already changed so much since I was there.

"It's a whole new offense, a whole new defense, a whole new team, top to bottom. So, when you look at it now, it's really about the football. I mean I'm extremely grateful for my time there, but when I've glimpsed here and there, it's a very different team, both personnel and schematically on both sides of the ball. Changes come. We're all just concentrating on what we have to do to make this team, the Broncos, successful and I think everybody in there has that approach, no matter where they came from."

Get ready

In his 14 years as the Indianapolis Colts quarterback, Peyton Manning's team earned a playoff bye four times. It played during the wild-card weekend seven times.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.